23/5

Tuscany was calling our name, so we have the ferry booked for 23rd May. Just for a change we have pre-booked a campsite for a few days in Florence, so Italy, here we come...

The white cliffs were somewhat hazy as we pulled out of Dover, accompanied by this gull. But we weren’t complaining as we sat out on the deck in the warmth to eat lunch.

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Calais welcomes us after a perfectly smooth and timely crossing before we headed south.

After the first hour on the motorway we struck off onto the A and B roads. This is now a fairly regular picture as there is little to beat the quiet, smooth and picturesque driving over here.

Our aim for the night was the aire in Beauvais. We didn’t realise it overlooked the city in quite such a glorious way. The Cathedral is what has drawn us here. There is quite a story behind it, which is well worth looking up. For a few years in the middle of the 16th century it was the tallest building in the world. However bits of it have fallen down a number of times and it remains incomplete as it has no nave. We will discover more tomorrow

24/5 On High

We walked down into Beauvais this morning and headed for the Cathedral, which, even with its lack of nave, is a remarkable building. From the back of the seating it looks relatively normal.

However, it is crisscrossed by large beams and supports - put in place to prevent further parts of it falling down.

It is amazing to think that in the 1560’s there was a spire over the transept making it about twice as high as it is today. That spire only lasted a year or so before it collapsed due to its being built on top of columns not designed to take the weight.

From Beauvais we headed almost due east towards Reims. We weren’t at all grumpy when we passed through Arsy on the way.

Our stopping place for the night is a car park next to the lighthouse at Verzenay, about 10 miles south east of Reims. It was originally built just before WW1 to promote a local brand of champagne. However it was badly damaged when the French used it as a lookout post and has only fairly recently been brought back to life as a lookout tower and eco museum about champagne.

There are over 100 steps to the top.

The village is perched on the edge of the hill with woods behind and a vast expanse of vineyards in front.

25/5 Heading South

This morning the sun shone across the village of Verzenay, where we were staying, illuminating the windmill on the hill opposite the lighthouse. All the twenty plus champagne houses in the village produce Premier Cru bubbly from the local vineyards.

We stopped for lunch just south of Saint-Dizier, next to the canal which runs alongside the river Marne.

This is the viaduct at Chaumont. It has 50 arches on three levels and was built in 18 months over 160 years ago. It is over half a kilometre long and still carries the main railway line into town.

Our halt for the night offers us this view looking out of our windows. We are in the small town of Etuz, 5 miles north of Besancon. We are parked next to the town football pitch and just down from the anglers clubhouse, but they all left at 7pm, leaving just us, the ducks and geese and a bat.

26/5 To Annecy

By some strange coincidence our stopping place last night was close to a village holding a Vide Grenier, (quelle surprise!), so we headed there this morning. It was the usual mixture of strangely fascinating Frenchness and the remarkably ordinary, such as this lady selling her unwanted clothes.

Our route south continued though Lons Le Saunier and up into the foothills of the Jura Alps. We had lunch overlooking the Lac du Vauglans. (Don’t forget you can click the “i” button below the picture and then the map tab will appear if the phone took the picture. You can zoom out to see where we were).

We are now settled on a campsite for a couple of nights about 4 miles south of Annecy by the lake. The town was incredibly busy and there was no possibility of us staying there. We can cycle in tomorrow on the bike path along an old railway track. The warm weather meant we could cook and eat al fresco.

The sun is now setting over the lake and illuminating the mountains opposite. We stayed on this campsite a few years ago and love the fact it has its own access to the water with a private beach and jetty.

27/5 Annecy

It really should be the first of the month so we can say “white rabbits”. We can only presume that this one is whiter than it used to be, as it seems to have had a bath!

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We cycled the 9 kilometres into town along the Piste Cyclable and drank our coffee watching the world go by, including one of the tourist boats heading off down the lake.

The town was much quieter than yesterday which meant we could stop beside the canals to admire the flowers unimpeded.

This is the Pont des Amours over the canal in the Jardins de l’Europe. Not that the UK seems to be very amorous towards Europe at the moment (London excepted of course).

28/5 Into Italy

As we approached Bourg Saint Maurice this morning we were pleased to see that our chosen route into Italy over the Alps was open. The only high level pass available was the Petit Saint Bernard. As we neared the summit and the clouds swirled around us, the snow got deeper and deeper each side of the road.

Once we started descending, we soon dropped below the snow line on the Italian side and the vistas opened up in front of us.

Mont Blanc was hidden from view but the high mountains were particularly spectacular.

We passed through La Thuile on the way down.

Once in the Aosta valley every town seemed to have a castle, presumably to prevent unwanted people passing.....

We reached Aosta and were helped to fill up our gas tank by a very helpful and friendly Italian lady who spoke perfect English.

We are now parked up for the night next to the sports centre in Fenis, just a few miles along the valley from Aosta. Just before 8pm two teams started assembling and warming up for what appears to be a game of boules, although this is a local variant with different markings on the pitches, even though the basic principles seem to be the same.

29/5 Into Piedmonte

We drove along the Valle d’Aosta in sunshine with the snow topped mountains beside us and hillside vineyards squeezed into every spare bit of suitable ground.

The town of Ivrea was decked out with pink umbrellas swinging from wires across the street and big pink bows everywhere. It was only later we found out that the Giro D’Italia started from here yesterday. This is one of the three Grand Tours of Road cycle racing and the leader wears a pink jersey, hence the colour.

We couldn’t resist stopping at a convenient branch of Lidl now that we are in Italy. It is amazing how much the product range varies from country to country. Here we get to choose from a huge range of pastas, sauces, cheeses and meats which put those at home to shame.

In Italy it is common to find water kiosks in town centre carparks. You can fill your own bottles with still or fizzy water for just a few Euro cents. Here we stumbled on one which dispenses fresh, chilled milk at a similar bargain price.

Tonight was are in the carpark aire in Churasco, about three miles south of Bra, in Piedmonte. We came across the most beautiful little chapel on our stroll around town. Small but perfectly formed, with an amazing dome.

30/5 Hills and Valleys

After a slow start we headed into Alba, one of the local towns, to see what we could see. A quick trip round the market just as it started shutting up shop was followed by our first cups of proper Italian coffee. Nice!

Alba is famous for being the centre of the Italian truffle trade. There is a Truffle Auction held here every year in October. Apparently it is very serious and high powered, so much so that they have armed police on hand. Today all was calm in the centre of town.

As ever with churches in Italy, you can peek inside one at random and be awestruck by what is hidden within. The church with this stunning ceiling was behind the most ordinary looking doorway.

At lunchtime we headed just a few miles east to the hilltop village of Barbaresco where we ate overlooking the local vineyards enjoying the wonderful views.

We are now parked for the night in Varzi, a small town about 20 miles up a valley east of Alessandria. We will find out what the town is like in the morning but it seemed a good stopping place as we head slowly towards Florence.

31/5 Festina Lente

“Make haste, slowly” says the Latin proverb, so we did. This morning we woke up to find the car park around us full and the weekly market in full swing across the road. It was an invitation we could not turn down.
If you fancy a small slice of hard italian cheese to grate over your pasta, we can recommend somewhere to buy it!

As in France, the market traders turn up in vans which are like a Tardis on wheels. How can this much stuff be inside a van which manages to negotiate the twists, turns and bumps of the badly surfaced italian roads?

Naturally we found time to enjoy a coffee and croissant while watching the world go by.

The road took us up over the mountain to Bobbio. It was narrow and twisty but extremely scenic.

We then headed north to Piacenza before turning south east along the Po valley to Parma, where we stopped for a couple of hours. We had heard that the Cathedral was worth visiting but we have never seen such a ornately painted interior.

The famous cupola was painted by Corregio in 1530.

Just a few hundred meters away we looked into another church only to find yet more amazing painting on high. It seems this part of Italy specialises in jaw-dropping ceilings.